Reproductive choice, gender equality and sustainable development are closely connected, say the latest report on the world's population
THE United Nations Population Fund's
(UNFPA) report on the global populace was released by Wasim Zaman, representative of the UNFPA in India, in New
Delhi on May 28. The State of World
Population 1997 focuses on the reproductive rights and reproductive health of every man and woman. While the report discusses issues like components
of reproductive and sexual rights, reproductive health of women and their unmet needs, adolescent sexuality, violence against women and gender equality, it urges the right-thinking citizen to lift all biases and barriers that prevent one from enjoying one's reproductive
right. While releasing the report, Zaman
said, "The central theme of this report is
that reproductive choice, gender equality and sustainable development are
closely connected, a linkage the international community has recognised
repeatedly at the series of conferences
on social development issues in the
1990s. Gaps and failures in reproductive
health care, combined with widespread
discrimination and violence against women, amount to a massive violation of human rights."
It was way back in 1948 that rights to
reproduce and sexual health found
mention starting with the
Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. The International Conference on
Population and Development
in 1994, followed by the
Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing in 1995,
placed the issues relating to
reproductive rights, reproductive health and gender in the centrestage. At Cairo in 1994,180 countries agreed that quality reproductive health
information ; and services should be available to everyone by AD 2015.
In the report, Nafis Sadik,
executive director of the UNFPA
says: "Reproductive health is a
right for both women and
men; every individual has the right
to decide the size and spacing of the
family, and to have the means and the
information to do so; there must be no
coercion, either to have or not to have
children; and these rights are part of the
international structure of human rights,
which has as its foundation the concept
that all men and women are equal."
Sadik further goes on to say that "the
challenge now is to make this right a
reality for every individual." The report
stresses the need for gender equality and
an increased investment in education
and primary health care.
The State of World Population 1997
sums up the existing trends regarding
the rights of women and says that the
reproductive rights of men and women
are not adequately represented:
As many as 585,000 women - one every minute - die each year from pregnancy related causes, nearly all in developed countries. On several occasions, a large number of women become disabled as a result of childbirth.
At least 75 million pregnancies each year (out of about 175 million) are unwanted; they result in 45 million abortions, 20 million of which are unsafe.
Each year, 70,000 women die as a result of unsafe abortions, and an unknown number suffer infections. Much of this could be avoided if safe and effective means of contraception were freely available.
In 1996, 3.1 million people were infected by the HIV virus; 1.5 million died from HIV/AIDS- related causes in 1996; at present, 22.6 million people are living with HIV/AIDS all over the world.
Each year, one million people die- from reproductive tract infections (RTIs) including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) other than HIV/AIDS. More than 333 million new cases of STDs each year occur among teenagers.
At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are missing" from various populations as a result of sex selective abortions or it neglect.
Each year, two million girls between
the ages of five and 15 are introduced
into the commercial sex market.
In India, the maternal mortality rate
(MMR) is estimated to be 437 per 100,000
live births. According to this estimate,
100,000 women in India die every year
from causes related to pregnancy and
childbirth. Of the various factors attributed to MMR are, bleeding during pregnancy (22 per cent), anaemia (20 per cent), post-natal infections in the
mother (12 per cent), abortion (12 per
cent), pregnancy- induced high blood
pressure ( 13 per cent), malpositioning of
the child (six per cent)'and not classifiable causes ( 15 per cent).
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